As if being a teenager wasn’t hard enough, being on your period is never fun. Many of us are guilty of not talking openly enough with teen girls about puberty and experiencing periods. Girls as young as eight or nine can start with their first period but equally, some teenagers don’t get their first period until they are sixteen.
Read MoreIf you saw Lizzie Mills in the street, you wouldn’t be able to guess that she is a power lifter, lifting weights as heavy as 190kg. What I love about Lizzie’s story is that it took her until she was 18 to discover power lifting: one of the things that we want to encourage is that girls try as many sports as possible to find one that they like and at which they can excel and achieve PBs. Sometimes this might mean trying something ‘unusual’ but as Lizzie experienced, that could be ‘the one’.
Read MoreThis week is Children’s Mental Health Week. Sadly, one in eight children and young people have a diagnosable mental health condition. Girls are identified as a high risk group with high rates of mental disorder and self-harm
Read MoreIn April 2018 I was up late, watching the World Cheerleading Championships streamed live from the USA. The previous year I had managed Team England ParaCheer and been out there myself, but this year, as I sat up in bed watching the team honoured with gold medals, my tears of pride were for another reason: standing on stage alongside our national athletes was one of the girls from my own cheerleading programme — a girl who had come to me as a shy beginner many years before.
Read MoreI was not a sporty girl, despite coming from a sporty family. I was surrounded by sport — both my parents were active, I went to watch my brother play rugby and sport was always on the TV. I did enjoy watching sport but during my formative years, I didn’t play anything, preferring, instead, a good book and nurturing my aspirations of being a sports journalist.
Read MoreRugby is, and always has been, traditionally a man’s game, yet gradually, more women and girls are muscling in on the action. In June 2019, World Rugby launched a new ‘Women in Rugby’ brand identity and landmark global campaign ‘Try and Stop Us’ aimed at driving increased participation and engagement among fans, audiences, players and investors in the women’s game. Participation levels are at an all-time high with 2.7 million players globally — making up more than a quarter of the global playing population — and a 28% increase in registered players since 2017. For the second year running, globally, more young girls have started to play rugby than boys and more than 40% of rugby’s 400 million fan base is female.
Read More
